{"id":2507,"date":"2017-01-25T10:37:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T10:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socialchangeschool.org\/2017\/01\/the-words-that-changed-the-world-nelson-mandela\/"},"modified":"2024-03-18T14:20:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T14:20:32","slug":"the-words-that-changed-the-world-nelson-mandela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/25\/01\/2017\/the-words-that-changed-the-world-nelson-mandela\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The words that changed the world\u2019: Nelson Mandela"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00abEducation is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world<\/strong>\u00bb (N. Mandela)\u00a0<\/p>\n

What better words could we use to start this new section on our blog about some of the most motivational sentences ever pronounced or written? These are words the School really and profoundly identifies with, words from the great Nelson Mandela, a brilliant leader and the inspiration\u00a0of our School’s everyday work.<\/p>\n

\u00abEducation is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the World\u00bb. 13 words. A powerful concept. Mandela spoke these words in 1990<\/strong>, during his trip to the United States, in a speech at the Madison Park High School in Roxbury, Boston. He was admonishing young people who were increasingly dropping out of their studies: even though they lived in difficult situations, only by continuing their education did\u00a0they have the weapons to combat and realise their change!<\/strong><\/p>\n

He chose to use the word \u2018weapon\u2019. A very strong word, because the improvement of one’s condition is a real war<\/strong>, and it has to be fought with the right weapons in order to win it.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, 13 years later<\/strong>, Mandela re-proposed the concept. That time he was in the University of<\/strong> Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, <\/strong>in his South Africa, at the presentation of an important didactic initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He used the sentence to remind people about how cultural <\/strong>marginalization<\/strong>, <\/strong>the banishment of black children from learning subjects such as Maths, Science and English, was foundational and\u00a0one of the weapons<\/strong>\u00a0used during that time\u00a0as a means of oppression<\/strong> by those who supported the Apartheid. Ignorance became a\u00a0way to control, and that made development impossible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The most interesting thing is that education<\/strong>, from the sixties on, wasn’t\u00a0only considered \u00a0as a social right, but as an essential development lever for nations<\/strong>, by prestigious economists and winners of the Nobel Prize (Theodore Schultz, James S. Coleman, James Heckman, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Amarthya Sen).<\/p>\n

We believe that education, apart\u00a0from being a fundamental right, is a duty of active citizenship, a factor of economic development, and the main lever for \u2018empowerment\u2019 and social change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Boston Globe: \u201c<\/em>Nelson Mandela\u2019s 1990 visit left lasting impression<\/a>“<\/em><\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project: \u201c<\/em>Nelson Mandela Foundation\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Lighting your way to a better future<\/em><\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Picture:\u00a0Nelson Mandela raises his fist to the crowd in Port Elizabeth, April 1, 1990. From \u00a0Boston Herald<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00abEducation is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world\u00bb (N. Mandela)\u00a0 What better words could we use to start this new section on our blog about some of the most motivational sentences ever pronounced or written? These are words the School really and profoundly identifies with, words from the great Nelson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[273],"class_list":["post-2507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words-that-changed-the-world","tag-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}